I won't go so far as to say I don't understand Family Guy's continued appeal with viewers, but I do sometimes resent that series for popularizing the offensive animated sitcom sub-genre, where the entire purpose of a series seems to be cramming as many pop culture references and shock humor as humanly possible into every episode. Plot and characterization are distant seconds in focus, if at all. Comedy Central added another entry into this sub-genre with the debut of Brickleberry. The best that can be said for this show is that it makes Family Guy look nuanced and refined by comparison.
Brickleberry, which debuted Tuesday night, was created by Waco O'Guin and Roger Black (who previously developed the MTV2 sketch comedy series Stankervision) and is executive produced by Daniel Tosh of Tosh.0 fame. Tosh has attracted a bit of controversy lately for his stand-up work, and this series seems like an attempt to roll with that momentum. The show follows the misadventures of a group of National Park Service rangers in the fictional Brickleberry National Forest. Steve (voiced by MadTV's David Herman) is the everyman of sorts, who consistently wins the "Ranger of the Month" award mainly by virtue of the fact that he actually attempts to do his job. In typical sitcom fashion, Steve's cozy little world is threatened when the attractive and reasonably competent Ethel (It's Always Sunny's Caitlin Olson) joins the team.
Steve and Ethel are wholly generic animated sitcom leads, with Steve being distinguished only by the fact that his tendency towards apathy and criminal negligence far exceeds the Homer Simpsons and Peter Griffins of the world. The rest of the cast are even more wooden poorly defined. Calling them characters would be giving the show too much credit, as they're really nothing more than a hollow series of caricatures and negative stereotypes. A black character who avoids work, obsessively pursues white women, and fears the wilderness? A lesbian character with perverted tendencies and the build and vocal timbre of a linebacker? They're both here. As with shows like Family Guy and American Dad, there's also the obligatory sarcastic, talking animal. In this case it's a bear cub named Malloy (voiced by Tosh himself) who craves junk food and abuses the hospitality of the mentally disturbed lead ranger, Woody (Tom Kenny).
With "Welcome to Brickleberry," the writers don't seem content to let more than a split second pass without pelting the viewer with some offensive gag or another. By the end of these 22 minutes, the show has lampooned Parkinson's Disease, quadriplegic children, AIDS, the Ku Klux Klan, abortion, and most often, rape. From my understanding, the rape jokes were actually toned down in the wake of Tosh's stand-up controversy. If that's the case, I'd hate to imagine what the original version of this episode was like. Sex is so often the focus of the various gags in this episode, from animal orgies to human-on-animal rape. Clearly the creators want viewers to be offended as much and as often as possible.
They may be disappointed, however. For all the effort to unnerve and upset, Brickleberry just comes across as desperate and impotent. Rather than be offended, most will probably just feel pity that a group of people labored for so long to produce something so unlikable. Why bother hating something so cold and passionless in its attempts to entertain viewers?
There's really nothing on display that can top what the South Park crew have churned out in terms of political incorrectness. I found myself chuckling a few times, but more in the sense of "Wow, that was really stupid," rather than genuine amusement. At least on South Park, the offensive gags tend to be presented in unique and clever ways and serve some larger sort of social commentary. And there's always an underlying sense of humanity to offset the humor. Brickleberry lacks that. The one-dimensional characters are either dull or downright despicable (often both at once). The setting and premise do little to make the show stand out from the pack. Even the animation quality is bland and forgettable. Brickleberry is easily the the most generic national park I've ever seen on television.
Comedy Central has enjoyed a long, successful history with animated fare, whether through original programming like South Park and Ugly Americans or syndication of older shows like The Critic and Undergrads. Brickleberry is like a slap to the face of that legacy. There's always hope that the creators will eventually choose to ditch the gross-out humor for a more genuine form of storytelling, but I can't imagine many viewers will stick around long enough to find out.
Jesse is a writer for IGN Comics and IGN Movies. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following Jesse on Twitter, or on IGN.
Source : ign[dot]com
No comments:
Post a Comment